Sangelkar, S., & McAdams, D. A. (2012, June), Creating Actionfunction Diagrams for User Centric Design  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21113

\bibitem{asee_peer_21113}
  Sangelkar, S., \& McAdams, D. A. (2012, June), \emph{Creating Actionfunction Diagrams for User Centric Design}
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21113

Shraddha Sangelkar and Daniel A. McAdams.  "Creating Actionfunction Diagrams for User Centric Design".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21113 Internet.  12 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_21113}
  Shraddha Sangelkar and Daniel A. McAdams.
  "Creating Actionfunction Diagrams for User Centric Design".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21113 Internet.  12 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21113
author = "Shraddha Sangelkar and Daniel A. McAdams"
title = "Creating Actionfunction Diagrams for User Centric Design"
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21113}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21113}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -             Creating Actionfunction Diagrams for User Centric DesignUsers are perhaps the most important aspect of consumer product design. There is a significantbody of research about the ways to measure and achieve user-friendliness in a product. Acustomer-driven approach to product design aims to produce greater user comfort and betterproduct experience. Design tools that keep the user in mind during early stages of design cangreatly improve the usability of the end product.A systematic break down of a product into its constituent functions allows a product designer tofocus on one function of a product at a time. Functional modeling allows us to abstract thefunctionality of a product irrespective of its form or shape. Functional modeling is well receivedin the design research community as a product representation framework. This paper explains theconcept of an actionfunction diagram, which builds on the notion of functional modeling. Inaddition to the functions and flows in a functional model, the actionfunction diagramincorporates the associated user activities. Thus, the actionfunction diagram allows user-productinteraction modeling.In an actionfunction diagram, an activity diagram and a functional model are combined into asingle graphical representation. Product functions are modeled using the Functional Basis anduser activities are modeled using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability andHealth (ICF) lexicon. The ICF was established by the World Health Organization and provides astandardized lexicon and taxonomy for the description of health and health-related states. Thispaper explains the application of ICF lexicon for creating actionfunction diagrams.For the design of products, modeling the user interaction with respect to the product is crucial.Literature recognizes the activity diagram as a tool to model user activities in relation to theproduct. However, the activity diagram stands by itself and does not reflect on how a change inuser activity affects product function; the user activities in an activity diagram are independent ofthe product functions. A product representation framework like the actionfunction diagramovercomes the limitations of the activity diagram, enhances the effectiveness of functionalmodeling, and provides a means to incorporate user-product interactions in the early stages ofdesign.This paper details the procedure for creating actionfunction diagrams with a case study on a canopener. The details of the procedure are based on the authors’ experience in creating, applyingand teaching both actionfunction diagrams and functional models. A pilot study demonstrates theeffectiveness of actionfunction diagram at consistently modeling user-product interaction.The specific goal of this paper is to teach the modeling actionfunction diagrams to designstudents, product designers, and future researchers. The paper also provides a checklist forbuilding actionfunction diagrams and lists the caveats for creating consistent actionfunctiondiagrams. The results demonstrate the potential of the actionfunction diagram as an effectiveproduct representation framework that focuses on the user.
AU  - Shraddha Sangelkar
AU  - Daniel A. McAdams
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Creating Actionfunction Diagrams for User Centric Design
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21113
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21113
ER  -